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PROBLEM All human endeavors are naturally constrained by the inherent limits of the human body. The human body is frail, difficult to repair, and requires long periods of recovery to heal from illness. In addition, it is extremely resistant to integration with technology that could mitigate these issues. One of the largest problems with the human body is its vulnerability. Every day the average person will perform dozens of tasks which could cripple or fatally injure them.1 In many cases, this danger can be mitigated or avoided, but in many more cases, it cannot. Developing medical techniques that improve the human body's own cellular regeneration mechanisms would address these injuries, and could lead to improvements in quality of life and increases in the length of the human lifespan. The human body is also extremely resistant to technological interfaces which could drastically improve quality of life. Designs or concepts exist for a vast array of prosthetics and medical implants which cannot be implemented because of the problem of rejection syndrome.2 If this difficulty could be removed it would greatly expand the possibilities of human augmentation, allow for more direct interfacing of medical devices and prosthetics with body tissues, and potentially allow for functional Brain-Computer Interfaces. Another constraint imposed by the human body is its lack of thaumaturgic ability. Few humans are capable of performing thaumaturgy, and those that can are limited in power and ability. If thaumaturgic ability could be artificially induced or amplified in human beings, thaumaturgy could become a viable solution to many difficult or otherwise impossible problems, including instantaneous long-distance transport, direct observation of historical events, and communication in remote locations. SOLUTION Archeological Expedition 1988/ES-2 recently discovered several objects in the Tabernas Desert, which we believe could be of value in addressing these issues. The objects discovered include: * A large (9000 kg), humanoid corpse, which possesses a number of prosthetics constructed from an unknown metal alloy. These prosthetics display an advanced degree of integration with the corpse's tissues, and show no signs of rejection syndrome. Aetheric resonance imaging of the corpse has revealed low-level EVE emissions from it, as well as high-level EVE emissions with the same signature from the prosthetics. This has been interpreted to mean that the corpse and the prosthetics share a common source of thaumatic power. * An organ, believed to be a liver, removed from the humanoid corpse for separate study. This organ was in pristine condition when removed. Cell cultures taken from it have displayed remarkable regenerative properties, with one culture growing back into a full liver in approximately 30 hours. * Several artifacts, thought to be religious in nature. These artifacts are made of the same metal alloy as the prosthetics found within the corpse. Aetheric resonance imaging shows that these artifacts emit EVE particles, with the same signature as the corpse and its prosthetics. It is believed that these artifacts draw thaumatic power from the same source as the corpse and the prosthetics. We propose that the metal alloy composing the artifacts and the prosthetics be analyzed to determine its exact chemical makeup, with the intent of producing more of it for use in medical implants. Depending on its conductive properties, it may also be of use in developing electro-neural interfaces. The extracted liver may be of use in the ongoing research of Project Samsara into developing stem cell based regenerative treatments. Using techniques to induce pluripotence in these livers cells could provide a stock of rapidly regenerating stem cells for use in regrowing organs or limbs. We also propose further study of the artifacts recovered to determine the process through which they were imbued with thaumatic power. If this process could be reverse engineered, it could be used in the construction of thaumatic prosthetics, which would allow anyone access to thaumaturgy. BUSINESS CASE The commercial potential of any one of these lines of research is extensive. The metal alloy from the prosthetics would have applications in advanced medical devices and implants, and could potentially be used for artificial augmentation of the human body. Potential markets would include implanted medical sensors, prosthetic limbs, and neural interfaces. A working regenerative treatment developed by Project Samsara based on the extracted liver could be used to treat seriously injured and physically handicapped individuals. A large potential customer base could be found in world militaries, which have to treat large numbers of amputees and critically wounded individuals every year. Augmenting human thaumaturgic abilities would be of interest to several organizations involved in thaumatology research or which extensively employ thaumaturges, primarily the International Center for the Study of Unified Thaumatology and the Global Occult Coalition, and would also be of use in our own thaumatology research. USE OF FUNDING Approximately 250,000 USD would be needed for chemical analysis and reverse engineering of the metal alloy, which would take between one to three months, depending on the exact composition of the alloy in question. Building or modifying infrastructure to produce this alloy at the larger scales necessary for commercial applications would cost nearly 1 million USD, and would take between six and eighteen months. Time and money could be saved by modifying existing excess infrastructure for this purpose. An additional 400,000 USD would be needed for animal testing of prosthetics developed from this metal alloy. It would take several years to test these prosthetics to the standards required by government regulatory agencies. Existing funding for Project Samsara is sufficient for the development of induced pluripotence techniques. Samsara is expected to produce a working technique within eight months. Adapting this technique to the recovered liver cells would cost less than 100,000 USD. Testing and certification costs would be nearly 500,000 USD. It is estimated that approximately 150,000 USD would be needed to identify and reverse engineer the process used to imbue the prosthetics and artifacts with thaumatic power, and is expected to take three to five months. Developing thaumaturgical prosthetics from the metal alloy with this process would cost 100,000 USD, assuming the use of existing research and resources from the development of mundane prosthetics utilizing the metal alloy. Testing of the thaumaturgic prosthetics would be done on Hyper-intelligent Model Laboratory Rodents1. These rodents display an advanced degree of problem-solving ability, which is necessary for successful testing of the proposed thaumaturgic prosthetics; testing procedures would involve presenting subjects with problems that can only be solved through the use of thaumaturgy2. The costs of this testing are estimated at 75,000 USD. We would also like to request the allocation of 10 million USD for the construction of a research facility on the site of the archaeological dig. This facility would provide a base of operations for further exploration of the dig site, and function as a central location for research of the objects recovered. KNOWN ISSUES At this time, no reliable means of inducing pluripotence in adult cells exist, although research by Project Samsara into this problem has turned up several promising potential techniques. The successful development of such a technique is necessary for any further work by Project Samsara, whether it involves the extracted liver or not. Even assuming the successful development of induced pluripotence, the process may not work on the cells from the extracted liver, or may produce stem cells that are not viable for human treatments. Assuming that the process for imbuing an object with thaumatic power can be reverse engineered and applied to the development of thaumaturgical prosthetics, mass production and commercialization will almost certainly be opposed by normalcy preservation agencies. This will be true for as long as thaumatology cannot be reconciled with mundane physics. Despite the limited market this would create, we believe that it will still be profitable to develop these prosthetics. Bibliography # Henningsen, T. F. (1981). Occupational Injuries: A Worldwide Epidemic. Journal of Anthropological Research, 69-80. # Stefansson, L. J. (1983). Organ Rejection in Contemporary Hospitals. Journal of Medical Statistics, 120-129. Category:Item Arsenal